In the recent past, mobile devices, such as smart phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, wearable smart devices, smart watches, and personal digital assistants, became commonly used items in everyday life. Accordingly, those devices are taken along with its respective users during a multitude of daily activities and are being used for a steadily increasing number of applications.
In one exemplary application, mobile devices are used for authentication purposes, e.g., for granting security access to a restricted area, for granting access to secure information, or for payment purposes. In this context, the term “authentication” is understood as the act of providing to a computer-based receiver system that a user is who she or he claims to be. Details with regard to authentication procedures can be found in U.S. utility patent publication 2009/0249478 A1, mentioned in the preceding.
When used for authentication purposes, a mobile device may be equipped with an interface that allows near field communication (NFC), which type of communication is generally known as to reduce the risk of eavesdropping by a third party due to the low physical range of the wireless transmission. However, since as mentioned in the preceding, typical users carry their mobile devices with them wherever they go and thus to a multitude of locations, there still exists a risk that the mobile device is “scanned” by a malicious party and thus that confidential information is compromised by a successful scanning attempt.
For example, in particular in public buildings, such as airports, train stations, stadiums, or the like, it is conceivable that a malicious party carries a scanner and tries obtaining confidential information from the mobile device of a passerby who is in close proximity using the aforementioned NFC technology on enabled devices.
Accordingly, a mobile NFC enabled user device is needed that provides for increased security and privacy.